Upgrade section - Installing a cd drive

Whether you are installing a new burner or DVD player, or even replacing a worn out drive, this is a simple task and shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes.

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Power down the computer and then discharge any static build-up you might have by removing the case and touching the grounded chassis. Next, unplug the power cord from the computer.

Before installing a cd drive

Removing an old drive

If you’re replacing a drive, locate it and remove the power, data, and audio cables.

You’ll be left with just a bare drive. At this point, check the jumper setting on the back of the drive. If it is set to Master, it will likely be the only thing plugged into the Data cable. If it was set to Slave, it is probably connected to the Hard drive as well. You’ll want to duplicate this on the new drive.

Now unscrew the drive by removing the screws on each side of the drive that hold it in the drive bay.

Slide the drive out the front of the bay. From this point on, the directions are the same whether you are installing a new drive, or replacing an existing one.

Installing a cd drive

Set the jumpers

Set the jumper settings on the back of the drive, according to the configuration you will be using.

Slide the new drive in the empty bay slot.

Mounting the new drive - Installing a cd drive

Screw the drive in place with the 4 screws that came with it.

Connect the audio, data, and lastly power connector.

Connect the audio cable to the sound card.

Verify that the data cable is plugged into the motherboard. If you never had a CD in before, notice the connector on the ribbon cable is keyed. See the picture below to view what I am talking about.

Also note that the connector on the motherboard is keyed to match it. If the CD isn’t going to be connected to the Hard drive, it should be connected to the Secondary connector. I have seen these labeled 0/1 and 1/2. In either case, the larger number is where you want to connect the CD.

For installing a cd drive

If you are replacing an existing drive, just re-connect the new drive in the same manner as the drive you removed.

Power up and install drivers if needed

Now you’re ready to replace the cover, plug the power back in, and turn the computer on. If you’re installing a burner or a DVD reader/writer, you’ll want to install any software that came with the drive. If you’re just installing a CD, XP will likely detect the drive without any problem and you probably won’t need to install anything else.

You can also install Dvd Rws this way. If you want 2 DVD/cd roms in your pc, just be sure to set the main one as master and the secondary as slave on the jumper settings. I just use one DVD RW drive, as it acts as a DVD ROM, cd rw, and a DVD RW all in one.

Thats it for my installing a cd drive article.

More Build/Upgrade articles

Installing a motherboard
Installing a cpu
Installing a cpu fan
Installing memory
Installing a graphics card
Installing a sound card
Installing a network card
Installing a hard drive
Installing floppy disk drives
Installing a cd drive